The Obama administration will ask the Supreme Court to save the president’s plan to shield as many as 5 million immigrants living in the country illegally from deportation, after lower courts blocked it.

A federal appeals court in New Orleans on Monday upheld a Texas-based federal judge’s injunction against President Barack Obama’s plan. Obama has issued executive orders to protect from deportation parents whose children are citizens or legal permanent residents, along with other immigrants who came to the country illegally as children.

The Justice Department said Tuesday it disagrees with the 2-1 ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and would appeal to the high court.

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott praised the ruling.

“President Obama should abandon his lawless executive amnesty program and start enforcing the law today,” Abbott said in a news release.

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The ruling further dims prospects of implementation of the executive action before Obama leaves office in 2017. Appeals over the injunction could take months and, depending on how the case unfolds, it could go back to the Texas federal court for more proceedings.

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Part of the initiative included expansion of a program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, protecting young immigrants from deportation if they were brought to the U.S. illegally as children. The other major part, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, would extend deportation protections to parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents who have been in the country for years.

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